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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28020276">between the motions</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/thecenterstaysthesame/pseuds/thecenterstaysthesame'>thecenterstaysthesame</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>illuminated by moon and fire [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Rise of Kyoshi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, and worldbuilding, backstories if you supposed, just lore, read warnigns at beginingn of fic!!, sorry spelling is not great rn</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 21:55:19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,303</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28020276</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/thecenterstaysthesame/pseuds/thecenterstaysthesame</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>He pushes the stack of cong yong bing on the bench he’s sitting on towards the girl’s direction and takes the top pancake. “Cong yong bing,” he says. “For you.”</p><p>A beat as Kelsang waits, and bit by bit, the girl emerges from the bush. She’s on her hands and feet, her faded blue coat ragged and hanging just above her knees, and she stops a few meters from the bench, her fingers scratching at the stone pattern in the ground. Kelsang puts on his most winning smile and nudges the pancake stack closer to her. She doesn’t move, quivering in place, waves of nervousness and caution rolling off of her.</p><p>“Kelsang,” he says, pointing to himself, moving as slowly as possible. “I’m Kelsang. You?”</p><p>“Kyoshi,” she says, voice weak and wobbly. </p><p>Kelsang masks the frown that nearly slips on his face. Not a traditional Chinese name in any sense; the way she pronounces it sounds almost Japanese, but then she says something in Cantonese before repeating, “Kyoshi.”</p><p>(Eleven years ago, Kelsang finds a child.)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>illuminated by moon and fire [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2015338</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>41</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>between the motions</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>content / trigger warning: canon child neglect, malnutrition, starvation.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>The first time Kelsang sees the girl, she sees him first.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It’s a small village, about a two hour bus ride from the city, and Jianzhu insists on bringing Kelsang with him to discuss the opening of a new clinic there. Jianzhu is inside handling the official paperwork, and Kelsang takes his lunch outside. The man is brilliant and bold and driven, but he insists on duty over everything else. He won’t mind Kelsang eating without him, hasn’t minded ever since they met years ago, and out in the countryside they’re far enough from the pollution that Kelsang can inhale and not immediately hack.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Maybe it’s old habits that alert him before anything else; he feels a set of eyes on him and notes the rustling leaves that seem just a little louder than before. Too controlled to be the wind, too big to be an animal. Orphans are not uncommon. The coast has just been hit by a typhoon and the orphanages are overfilled and underfunded, and even though Jianzhu refuses to look at them, Kelsang has seen his fair share of children on the streets, bones protruding and eyes hollow.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He has fresh </span>
  <em>
    <span>cong you bing </span>
  </em>
  <span>from a stand before they left Guangzhou, four pieces of fried scallion pancakes wrapped in a crisp paper, and he rummages through his bag, pulling out a clay turtle and his pencil bag before he pulls out the pancakes. Kelsang turns to his side to set down napkins and the pancakes, and that’s when he sees her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She’s crouched underneath the bushes, squatting in the dirt and her hands in front of her keeping her balance, hair tangled and matted and hanging in front of her bright eyes. From what Kelsang can make out, she’s no older than ten, with still some semblance of baby fat hanging off her otherwise hollow cheeks, but the way she’s almost folded in on herself tells Kelsang she’s maybe 150 centimeters, much taller than regular children.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kelsang smiles at her, and she shies away further under the bushes until he can only make out the tips of her fingers digging into the dirt. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hello,” he says. “Would you like to join me?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Silence. It occurs to Kelsang that the girl may not understand Mandarin— most of the village residents only speak Cantonese— and he fumbles with his next few words.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m eating,” he says. Jianzhu mentioned that the dialects are similar enough to each other that some words overlap with others, and he’s pretty sure “eating” is one of those. “I’m eating.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He pushes the stack of </span>
  <em>
    <span>cong yong bing </span>
  </em>
  <span>on the bench he’s sitting on towards the girl’s direction and takes the top pancake. “</span>
  <em>
    <span>Cong yong bing</span>
  </em>
  <span>,” he says. “For you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A beat as Kelsang waits, and bit by bit, the girl emerges from the bush. She’s on her hands and feet, her faded blue coat ragged and hanging just above her knees, and she stops a few meters from the bench, her fingers scratching at the stone pattern in the ground. Kelsang puts on his most winning smile and nudges the pancake stack closer to her. She doesn’t move, quivering in place, waves of nervousness and caution rolling off of her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Kelsang,” he says, pointing to himself, moving as slowly as possible. “I’m Kelsang. You?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Kyoshi,” she says, voice weak and wobbly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kelsang masks the frown that nearly slips on his face. Not a traditional Chinese name in any sense; the way she pronounces it sounds almost Japanese, but then she says something in Cantonese before repeating, “Kyoshi.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Cong yong bing</span>
  </em>
  <span> for Kyoshi,” Kelsang says.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kyoshi takes tentative steps forward, moving on all fours in some sort of a scamper, and just when she gets within range of the pancakes—</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Kelsang! We have to go.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Quick as a whip, her arm flashes forward and she bolts back into the undergrowth. By the time Kelsang reaches out for her, she’s gone, leaving only shaking branches and leaves in her wake. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Was that a street rat?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kelsang resists the urge to frown as he turns back to Jianzhu, who’s come up behind him and has some look of indifference on his face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Her name is Kyoshi,” Kelsang says. “And I gave her my </span>
  <em>
    <span>cong yong bing</span>
  </em>
  <span>—”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He stops at that, stares at the bench to make sure he’s not seeing things, and Jianzhu confirms it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I think she took your turtle,” he says. “Somehow missed the entire stack of food. She’s probably just one of the neighborhood kids who wanted a toy.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The turtle. The one given to him by a client a few towns over, a potter who offered it to him in thanks for providing their daughter with herbal medicines for her cough. It had a red string loop in the center of the shell to where one could hold it, and it certainly wasn’t worth anything. It was a toy, not food or money or clothing, and yet Kelsang knows Kyoshi chose the turtle over the pancakes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Before they leave, Kelsang asks the head of the dormitory about the girl. “Brown hair, blue coat,” he says. “Very tall, maybe 150 centimeters.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Green eyes?” the man asks. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I suppose,” Kelsang says. “I couldn’t get close enough to see for sure.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The man shrugs. “She’s nobody’s.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The second time Kelsang sees the girl, she isn’t moving.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jianzhu and Kelsang are at the village for the annual visit, speaking with Guo. The clinic has grown and offers free check-ups for those in need, and when Jianzhu and Guo begin laying out details in the budget for further expansions, Kelsang slips out on his annual search for Kyoshi.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>In the five years they’ve come back to the village, he hasn’t seen any sign of her. Talking to the villagers is no good; the most he can get from them is that she came seven years ago (so she was abandoned at seven) and nobody wants her. There’s a lot more venom directed towards her than Kelsang has heard for other street children, and with a sinking heart, Kelsang wonders if there’s any chance Kyoshi is related to the triads. It’s a far stretch, but Guangzhou is a popular port with plenty of triad activity. If Kyoshi simply appeared at the age of seven with no family, well, she had to have come from somewhere.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A flash of blue catches his eye, and Kelsang stops in his treck. He’s far out from the courtyard now, still within the range of undergrowth that has yet to be cut down, but he recognizes the blue of the torn cloth caught in the lower branches. Kelsang picks it off delicately and inspects the area. There’s a couple of broken branches, and he follows, wincing every time a particularly sharp branch catches against his face and beard. The path opens up to a cleared construction sight, trees torn up and land displaced, but what catches his eye is the shed leaning off to the side.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It’s a temporary build, meant to house any equipment that the workers needed for the time and place, and the door is just barely closed. Kelsang hovers near the entrance.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Kyoshi?” he calls.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Silence. He pushes in the door.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tucked underneath a hastily-constructed table is a lump of blue and brown. Kelsang calls again, but there’s no movement.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Something twists in his stomach as he approaches the table and kneels. She’s gotten taller and she has a new pair of men’s trousers, but it’s most definitely her, in a torn blue coat that’s getting tight around her shoulders and with a wild mane of brown hair.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Kyoshi,” Kelsang says quietly. There’s a moment where he fears the worst, but then her eyes open.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her eyes are green, he reflects. A deep, dark green, much darker than the eyes of the boy Jianzhu took in last year, but green nonetheless. Recognition flickers in her eyes, and she licks her chapped lips.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Kelsang.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kyoshi’s voice is weak and hoarse, but Kelsang’s heart soars.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Kelsang,” he agrees. He motions with his hands. “Are you okay?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>No movement. Kyoshi doesn’t say anything and simply watches, curled up on her side and arms wrapped around her legs. There are freckles scattered all over her face and hands, but her skin has a grayish tint, visible even in the dim light inside the shed, and the way she simply watches him is unsettling. He takes off his outer robes and presents them to Kyoshi. Still no movement.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She would be nearly fourteen by now, Kelsang thinks. The way she’s curled up right now, he thinks of cats and the way they hid away when they were on the verge of death, closed off from the rest of the world.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Kyoshi, can you come out?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kelsang doesn’t know if it translates to Cantonese well, but he scoots backwards and motions with his hands for Kyoshi to crawl out from the table. A pause, and then almost painstakingly, Kyoshi unfolds her body and drags herself out from under the table. The way she moves twists Kelsang’s heart; it’s like she doesn’t even have enough strength to move her legs. Coming out into the light, he notes the glazed look in her eyes and the way she sways slightly, supporting herself on the left arm. Her right hand, Kelsang realizes with a pang, is clutching the clay turtle she took from him years ago.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You have a fever,” he says. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>That translates; Kyoshi simply nods, and her left hand fists his robe. He wraps it around her, draping it over her shoulders, and Kyoshi closes her eyes, like she’s sinking into the warmth of the robes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kyoshi collapses the moment Kelsang coaxes her out of the shed, and he ends up carrying her back to the clinic, wrapped up tightly in his robes but her face ashen-gray and still. Guo takes one look at her and Kelsang doesn’t miss the look of disgust flashing across his face before he tells him to go to the main city to care for her. Jianzhu simply gives him a long-suffering look, but Kelsang doesn’t let go of Kyoshi until hours later, when they reach the city hospital and she’s wheeled in for intensive care. He carries her for all those hours, but he’s not tired. She’d gotten taller for sure, but it felt like he had been carrying nothing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kelsang is still sitting in the waiting room when Jianzhu comes back with a bag of</span>
  <em>
    <span> you tiao</span>
  </em>
  <span> and hands it to him with only an arched eyebrow. Kelsang takes it with a smile of thanks, and Jianzhu sits down next to him as he takes his first bite.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is that Kyoshi?” Jianzhu finally asks. “The girl you’ve been talking about for years now?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He doesn’t have enough energy to say anything else. In his line of work, he has seen enough starving and sickly children, and being so close to her, on the verge of death, has drained him of most anything. The </span>
  <em>
    <span>you tiao </span>
  </em>
  <span>is cardboard in his mouth, the little bursts of sweetness the only hint that he’s eating actual food.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can’t believe you found her again,” Jianzhu muses. “After seven years. What are the chances?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kelsang shrugs, taking another bite.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How is she doing?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Malnourished. And sick. She has pneumonia. But she recognized me after seven years,” Kelsang says. “And now that she has help, I think she has a chance.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You seem distressed,” Jianzhu notes, ever observant. “What are you going to do with her?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hm?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I presume you’re paying her medical fee,” he says. “But you seem awfully attached to her, Kel.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How did you adopt Yun? From Makapu.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I pulled strings—”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A pause. Realization flashes through his dark eyes, and Jianzhu sighs. “Oh.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll have to slow down work with you,” Kelsang says. “Or find a way to work from home. I just want her to be safe.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Another pause, and Kelsang takes another bite of his you tiao. Jianzhu breaks the silence with a sigh.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Have you ever raised a child, Kel? Do you know what you’re getting yourself into?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I helped my parents with their breeding business,” Kelsang says. Jianzhu snorts. “I think I have an idea on what to do. And I don’t recall you having kids either. Why did you adopt Yun?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A scoff, and Kelsang knows he’s won. Jianzhu has never been the familial type, an orphan of the Revolution, with the closest to that sort of bond being their friend group in university. He has the suspicion that Jianzhu saw some sort of familiarity in the way Yun played </span>
  <em>
    <span>pai sho</span>
  </em>
  <span>, in the way he cast his tiles and the way he smiled at his opponents, warm and clever, and that it was that familiarity Jianzhu wanted when he took in the boy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jianzhu does have a point though. Raising dogs is not the same as raising a child, an orphaned teenager who doesn’t even share a language with him, but Kyoshi still held on to his clay turtle, seven years later, and Kelsang doesn’t think he could ever forgive himself if he left her to waste away on the streets. He has a small residential home in America, close to where his old classmate and her daughter live, and maybe Kyoshi can begin anew there with him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll ask around,” Jianzhu says. “She’s a street girl, so I don’t expect there to be any difficulties, but I have a friend stationed here who I can speak to just in case.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A rush of relief in Kelsang’s chest, and he takes Jianzhu’s clasped hands with his free hand.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thank you, Jianzhu,” he says, and Jianzhu nods in ever-typical Jianzhu fashion.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He stays with Kelsang for the rest of the night, sitting in the waiting room of the hospital.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>kyoshi has been added to inventory.<br/>the beginning!! this entire series will probably be mostly in chronological order with occasional flashbacks like this guy :"0 but this is the very beginning heehonk. trying to decide what my next oneshot will be (i have so many prompt ideas but!! not sure which ones i wanna post in order for the sake of plot oops). hope y'all are well!!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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